Jessica Granlund

Jessica Granlund (b.1985) is a self-taught, intuitive paper artist from Växjö in the southern part of

Sweden, who uses the surrounding Swedish forests as the major source of inspiration in her art process: "On my strolls in the Swedish forests, I absorb the patterns, textures and forms and bring these impressions with me back to the studio. I am interested in the tactile experience of the forest and investigate this in my mixed media artwork."

Jessica has a Master in Education. She previously worked as an upper secondary school teacher of the Swedish and the English language, but today she is navigating her need of expressing herself creatively under her artist alias Work of ARK. 

She has always been interested in the concept of form and context in her language teaching, something that directly translates into her work of art today: “ARK is the Swedish word for 'sheet of paper' and each piece is sculpted by hand using various types of paper and layers of paint. Paper as a medium is both playful, creative and interesting, and a given choice when the shapes of the forest are to be interpreted in the works. The material's natural connection to the trees creates a movement from the source of origin to the canvas and the circle is thereby closed."

The ARK-series interprets a broad spectrum of the forest's different patterns and structures, tracing back to tree knots, roots and stems, where the latter has a specific series of its own, ARK STAM (the Swedish word for 'stem'): "My hope is that the work will take the viewer out into the soothing rooms of the forest and help calm the thought with its tactility and elegance. Can you feel the forest the way I did? If so, the art has turned into a language of its own, telling stories about the forest I once visited. The artwork becomes the link that takes the viewer on a tactile journey to the very same place, regardless of time and space."

As mentioned, in all of her artworks paper is a key medium and as a tribute to paper and the old tradition of paper art, the series "ARK ORIGAMI" was born: “The patterns in ARK ORIGAMI have taken direct inspiration from the origami art and its characteristic folds and edges. With this series, I want to draw attention to the quality of paper as a medium and the almost endless creativity it holds. However, I continue to do this true to the pure, elegant expression that is significant for the ARK series."

"Paper being one key element in my art, another common core is how it intends to interact with the light of the surroundings as a tribute to the light of the forest which finds its way through the treetops and plays on the different textures and forms that meet the eye. Therefore, most of the pieces have a monochrome expression, which helps exploring and enhancing the contrast between light and shadow, built up by the folds and forms of each specific artwork."